By Vanessa Miller, Daily Camera
June 16, 2007
A group of mostly Boulder protesters said that their First Amendment rights were violated when they were “forcefully removed” from a Colorado Rapids match against the Chinese national team for waving Tibetan flags and banners.
Tenzin Dhongyal, a Tibetan living in Boulder, said that he and 13 other protesters were grabbed and shoved in the Rapids’ new Commerce City soccer stadium Sunday for raising flags and banners.
Colorado Rapids officials said that the signs violated a clear rule outlined in the team’s fan guide.
But Dhongyal called the ejection a First Amendment rights violation. The group bought tickets to the game, and Dhongyal said, “We were not disrupting the game or shouting.”
“When it comes to free speech, I don’t think there is a place and time for it,” he said. “Free speech is free speech.”
One of the group’s banners said, “One world. One dream. Free Tibet.”
“It hits on the 2008 Chinese Olympic slogan, ‘One world, One dream,’ ” Dhongyal said. He said that for the slogan to be true, “China has to free Tibet.”
The Rapids’ fan guide states that banners, flags and signs are allowed as long as they meet a list of stipulations, including one that prohibits items containing “commercial or political messages of any kind.”
“With anything in the stands that is inflammatory for anyone in the stadium, we take a proactive stance,” said Jurgen Mainka, Colorado Rapids spokesman. “We don’t feel that a sporting event is the place for political banners.”
Mainka said that management banned political banners for the public’s safety because someone might respond violently to a protest.
Judd Golden, chairman of Boulder County’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that a private organization that pays for its own stadium can make its own rules, even if it means keeping protesters quiet. But Golden said that the protesters should be commended for pushing the free-speech envelope.
In April, five U.S. protesters, including three with Boulder ties, were arrested at Mount Everest for displaying banners calling for Tibetan independence.
